THE OLD HUJS^TSMAN'S STORY. 129 



and quite slim built ; he had black hair and a black mous- 

 tache, and fine white teeth that he was fond of showing, and 

 was altogether a handsome man. Both were rare men to 

 hounds — Miss Amy wouldn't have looked at them if they 

 hadn't been — but Mr. Onslow had better cattle than Captain 

 Doyle, being the richer of the two, and rode a two-stone 

 lighter man as well ; but then Captain Doyle, though quite 

 as bold, was the best rider, and took more care of his horses. 

 He always got off at the covert side ; you would often 

 see him walking by his horse's side, and he never bucketed 

 them over heavy ground if he could help it." 



The old huntsman paused to take a pull at his grog; 

 then he proceeded : 



" I remember it w^ell ; it was February, the best month 

 in the year, to my mind, for sport, and that year we had 

 an exceptional run of luck. That evening, after a capital 

 gallop of over an hour, hounds having steadily run up to 

 their fox, and killed him fairly and squarely in the open, 

 Tom Day came in to ask if he might have a few words 

 with me outside. I had been obliged to find fault with 

 him two or three times that day ; he had seemed inatten- 

 tive and sleepy in his duties, yet as a rule he anticipated 

 what I wanted, and a nod or a whistle was all he required. 

 As it w^as, I had to tell him two or three times to turn 

 hounds to me, and more than once when I wanted my hounds 

 to try up a hedge side, he would get between them and 

 the hedge, while once he let a fox go away right under 

 his nose, and he would never have seen it if a gentleman 

 had not said, 'You've given him two fields' law; hadn't 

 you better holloa, Tom ? ' 



" To finish up with, when coming home he opened a 



gate, went through himself, and let it slam right in the 



face of the hounds. Then I ripped out : ' Confound it, 



man, what's the matter with you ? You've been no more 



I 



